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Prisoner torture ignored, claims MP

TBILISI, DFWatch – Giorgi Tsagareishvili, chairman of the faction Unity for Justice and the member of the Free Democrats accuses the government of prisoner torture and demands that the Chief Prosecutor’s office investigates the torturing of a 22 year old prisoner.

He told reporters at a press conference that the director and a security officer at prison hospital systematically physically and verbally abused prisoner Giorgi Okropiridze.

The institution’s director is Alexandre Tolordaia and the security officer’s name is Giorgi Avsajanishvili.

Tsagareishvili (pictured) further says that the prisoner, who was transferred to the hospital due to complications in relation to hepatitis C, was beaten using bare hands and a wet towel, so that there wouldn’t be visible swellings.

“Okropiridze also harmed himself because of the tortures, but the doctor who came to visit him was forced to return, and said that it would be good if he will die emptied of blood. He is threatened with being killed and is told that they will disguise it as a suicide,” Tsagareishvili said.

He claims that the prisoner submitted testimony about the torture to a judge, but he was sentenced to 30 days of extra administrative punishment.

Giorgi Okropiridze is sentenced to 13 years in jail. His case has gone to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The MP says that Strasbourg has already issued an interim report which says that immediate medical treatment is necessary, but this recommendation has not yet been followed.

“This is another expression of the fascist face of Saakashvili. This is the face of the democracy which is shining in Eastern Europe so that it turns people’s lives into ashes,” Tsagareishvili says, appealing to the prosecutor’s office to start an investigation based on the statement of the prisoner, which has been sent to the Public Defender. The guilty should be punished, he adds.